Systems and Methods for Providing a Multi-Modal Evaluation of a Presentation

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described for providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation. A system includes a motion capture device configured to detect motion an examinee giving a presentation and an audio recording device configured to capture audio of the examinee giving the presentation. One or more data processors are configured to extract a non-verbal feature of the presentation based on data collected by the motion capture device and an audio feature of the presentation based on data collected by the audio recording device. The one or more data processors are further configured to generate a presentation score based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/809,443 entitled “Using Multi-Modal Cues to Score Presentation-Making Skills,” filed 8 Apr. 2013, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD

This disclosure is related generally to presentation evaluation and more particularly to presentation evaluation using non-verbal features.

BACKGROUND

While limited-choice selection items have historically been used for evaluating abilities of a person, the amount of insight into those abilities that can be gained through the use of such testing items is limited. Such evaluation items have been used in large part due to the ease in scoring those item types. Given an ability to ease the scoring burden of more advanced item types, such advanced item types will be used more frequently, providing enhanced information on abilities of an examinee. For example, when investigating an examinee's communication ability (e.g., in evaluating progress in language learning, in evaluating teaching ability, in evaluating job aptitude as part of an interview process) it may be desirable to analyze the examinee's presentation abilities with some automatic scoring of those abilities being provided.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are described for providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation. A system includes a motion capture device configured to detect motion of an examinee giving a presentation and an audio recording device configured to capture audio of the examinee giving the presentation. One or more data processors are configured to extract a non-verbal feature of the presentation based on data collected by the motion capture device and an audio feature of the presentation based on data collected by the audio recording device. The one or more data processors are further configured to generate a presentation score based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.

As another example, a computer-implemented method of providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation includes detecting motion of an examinee giving a presentation using a motion capture device and capturing audio of the examinee giving the presentation using an audio recording device. A non-verbal feature of the presentation is extracted based on data collected by the motion capture device, and an audio feature of the presentation is extracted based on data collected by the audio recording device. A presentation score is generated based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.

As a further example, one or more computer-readable mediums are encoded with instructions for commanding one or more data processors to execute steps of a method of providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation that includes detecting motion of an examinee giving a presentation using a motion capture device and capturing audio of the examinee giving the presentation using an audio recording device. A non-verbal feature of the presentation is extracted based on data collected by the motion capture device, and an audio feature of the presentation is extracted based on data collected by the audio recording device. A presentation score is generated based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a presentation evaluation engine for providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting operations of a presentation evaluation engine.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting example components used in implementing a presentation evaluation engine.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting generation of a scoring model for use in generating presentation scores.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a computer-implemented method of providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation.

FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C depict example systems for use in implementing a presentation evaluation engine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Presentations have long been used not only as a mechanism for conveying information but as a mechanism for measuring abilities of a person giving the presentation. For example, presentations are often required as part of a schooling program (e.g., an oral book report) to measure the examinee's substantive and/or presentation abilities. Such evaluations can be useful in many other circumstances as well. For example, as part of a teaching certification process, student-teachers are often asked to present a short lecture on a topic with little preparation time. In another example, students in an English-as-a-Second-Language program may be asked to speak on a topic to evaluate their communicative abilities in the English language. In a further example, communication skills during an interview are examined, especially for jobs, such as public relations positions, that require strong communication abilities.

Such presentation examinations have traditionally been human-scored, such as by an evaluator watching the presentation live. Such scoring is time consuming and expensive, but presentation evaluations have been consistently used because of the level of information that they are able to provide about examinee abilities. Systems and methods are described herein for providing an automated, multi-modal evaluation of presentations that can enable more widespread use of presentation evaluations without significant increase in costs and other difficulties encountered in manual-scored presentation evaluations (e.g., bias of scorers). For example, such automatic scores could be utilized as a partial first round filter of interviewees for a job position having a large number of applicants.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting a presentation evaluation engine for providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation. An examinee presentation 102 is viewed by a motion capture device 104 configured to detect motion of the examinee giving the presentation 102. An audio recording device 106 is configured to capture audio of the examinee giving the presentation. Outputs from the motion capture device 104 and the audio recording device 106 are provided to a presentation evaluation engine 108. Based on those outputs, the presentation evaluation engine 108 is configured to generate a presentation score 110.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting operations of a presentation evaluation engine. Similar to the example of FIG. 1, an examinee presentation 202 is viewed by a motion capture device 204 configured to detect motion of the examinee giving the presentation 202. An audio recording device 206 is configured to capture audio of the examinee giving the presentation. Outputs from the motion capture device 204 and the audio recording device 206 are provided to a presentation evaluation engine 208.

The presentation evaluation engine 208 includes one or more data processors that are configured to extract a non-verbal feature of the presentation 202 at 210 based on data collected by the motion capture device 204 and to extract an audio feature of the presentation at 212 based on data collected by the audio recording device 206. The presentation evaluation engine 208 is further configured to generate a presentation score 214 at 216 based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting example components used in implementing a presentation evaluation engine. Motion from an examinee presentation 302 is detected by a motion capture device 304 (e.g., digital values, voltages, video imagery). In one example, the motion capture device is a depth measurement device (e.g., a Microsoft Kinect device) that captures measurements of the distance of objects from a sensor (e.g., a digital depth measurement value for each pixel of an array of pixels) and thus, depth information that can be utilized to analyze motion of the presenter. In another example, the motion capture device 304 is a video camera (e.g., a high-definition video camera), where marker based motion capture is performed based on anchor points identified at certain positions of the examinee. As those anchor points move from frame-to-frame of captured video, motion measurements can be measured. In another example, the video camera is utilized to measure facial expressions and changes in facial expressions throughout the presentation. An audio recording device 306, such as in the form of a microphone, is configured to capture audio of the examinee presentation 308 for downstream processing. In one example, the audio of the examinee presentation 302 is captured using a microphone of a device, such as a camcorder, that is also acting as the motion capture device, as illustrated at 306.

Outputs of the motion capture device 304 and the audio recording device 306 are provided to a presentation evaluation engine 308 for processing and downstream generation of a presentation score 310. At 312, the presentation evaluation engine 308 extracts one or more non-verbal features that are used in the generation of the presentation score 310. For example, occurrence, frequency, and speed of body movement, gestures, eye movement, head turning, etc., can be determined by the processing system, such as from successive frames of captured video imagery using suitable image processing methods including conventional image processing methods and algorithms. Non-verbal features that could be extracted at 310 include gesture metrics (e.g., amount of gesturing, speed of gesturing) as indicated by data from the motion capture device. For example, depth measurements from the motion capture device 304 could be used to track and determine an amount of hand gesturing during the examinee presentation. In another example, magnitudes of pixel value changes or rates of change of pixel value changes between frames of a video could indicate an amount of movement of the examinee and, thus, their level of gesticulation. As another example, a non-verbal posture (or head position/orientation) feature could be generated based on analysis of video footage of the examinee presentation. For example, changes in relative distances among anchor points on the examinee during the presentation could indicate slouching at certain portions of the presentation. As a further example, eye contact and facial expression metrics could be extracted, such as through analysis of high-definition video taken during the presentation, which indicate demeanor of the presenter and appropriateness of eye contact. Other non-verbal features, such as mood, could be extracted. For example, a combination of a gesture sub-feature and a posture sub-feature could be referenced to determine a mood feature, where an alert posture with fast gestures indicates an angry or agitated mood, while low movement and poor posture could indicate a self-conscious mood.

At 314, the presentation evaluation engine 308 extracts one or more audio features using data from the audio recording device 306. Audio features utilized by the presentation evaluation engine 308 may be content based features or non-content based features. For example, an audio feature may measure a quality of content spoken by the examinee in the presentation 302. In such an example, the presentation audio is provided to an automatic speech recognizer that generates a transcript of the presentation 302. To analyze the content of the presentation 302, the transcript can be compared to other model transcripts, compared to a prompt presented to the examinee to set up the presentation, or another constructed response scoring technique can be used, such as techniques that use natural language processing or latent semantic analysis to compare texts. Certain non-content based audio features can utilize a transcript (e.g., an automatic speech recognizer transcript or a manual transcript) to generate an audio feature. For example, an audio feature could measure pronunciation of words in the presentation 302 by comparing sounds produced by the presenter at certain points of the presentation, as captured by the audio recording device 306, and proper pronunciations of words identified at those points in the transcript. Other non-content transcript based metrics could indicate levels of vocabulary and grammar used in the presentation 302. Other non-content, delivery-type metrics can be determined without use of a transcript (although an automatic speech recognizer may still be used to generate the metrics). For example, fluency and prosody can be measured by observing stresses, accents, and discontinuities (e.g., pauses, hesitations, use of filler words, false starts, repetitions) in audio captured of the presentation 302.

One or more non-verbal features and/or one or more audio features can be combined to generate a presentation score at 316. For example, the features 312, 314 can be weighted to generate a presentation score, where such weights can be generated through analysis of human scored presentations, where such analysis indicates correlations between features of presentations and human scores for those presentations.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting generation of a scoring model for use in generating presentation scores. A collection of human scored presentations are assembled, such as in a computer-readable data store 402 that contains the human scores and a variety of different non-verbal and audio features of those presentations. A scoring model generation module 404 of a presentation evaluation engine 406 performs an analysis of the human scored presentations to determine which non-verbal and audio features are predictive of human scores. For example, the scoring model generation module 404 may identify correlations between non-verbal and audio features and the assigned human score to select features that are predictive and weight those features accordingly. The identified features (e.g., multiple non-verbal features and multiple audio features) and their associated weights are stored as a scoring model 408 that is utilized for generating presentation scores 409 for other examinee presentations 412. An examinee presentation 410 is viewed by a motion capture device 412 configured to detect motion of the examinee giving the presentation 410. An audio recording device 414 is configured to capture audio of the examinee giving the presentation. Outputs from the motion capture device 412 and the audio recording device 414 are provided to the presentation evaluation engine 406.

The presentation evaluation engine 406 includes one or more data processors that are configured to extract a non-verbal feature of the presentation 410 at 416 based on data collected by the motion capture device 412, such as the non-verbal features identified for use by the scoring model 408 because of the predictiveness of human scores. At 418, the presentation evaluation engine 406 extracts an audio feature of the presentation at 410 based on data collected by the audio recording device 414. The presentation evaluation engine 406 is configured to generate the presentation score 409 at 420 based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature as instructed by the scoring model 408.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram depicting a computer-implemented method of providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation. The method includes detecting motion of an examinee giving a presentation using a motion capture device at 502 and capturing audio of the examinee giving the presentation using an audio recording device at 504. A non-verbal feature of the presentation is extracted based on data collected by the motion capture device at 506, and an audio feature of the presentation is extracted based on data collected by the audio recording device at 508. At 510, a presentation score is generated based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.

Examples have been used to describe the invention herein, and the scope of the invention may include other examples. FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C depict example systems for use in implementing a presentation evaluation engine. For example, FIG. 6A depicts an exemplary system 600 that includes a standalone computer architecture where a processing system 602 (e.g., one or more computer processors located in a given computer or in multiple computers that may be separate and distinct from one another) includes a presentation evaluation engine 604 being executed on it. The processing system 602 has access to a computer-readable memory 606 in addition to one or more data stores 608. The one or more data stores 608 may include non-verbal and audio features 610 as well as presentation scores 612.

FIG. 6B depicts a system 620 that includes a client server architecture. One or more user PCs 622 access one or more servers 624 running a presentation evaluation engine 626 on a processing system 627 via one or more networks 628. The one or more servers 624 may access a computer readable memory 630 as well as one or more data stores 632. The one or more data stores 632 may contain non-verbal and audio features 634 as well as presentation scores 636.

FIG. 6C shows a block diagram of exemplary hardware for a standalone computer architecture 650, such as the architecture depicted in FIG. 6A that may be used to contain and/or implement the program instructions of system embodiments of the present invention. A bus 652 may serve as the information highway interconnecting the other illustrated components of the hardware. A processing system 654 labeled CPU (central processing unit) (e.g., one or more computer processors at a given computer or at multiple computers), may perform calculations and logic operations required to execute a program. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium, such as read only memory (ROM) 656 and random access memory (RAM) 658, may be in communication with the processing system 654 and may contain one or more programming instructions for performing the method of implementing a presentation evaluation engine. Optionally, program instructions may be stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium such as a magnetic disk, optical disk, recordable memory device, flash memory, or other physical storage medium.

A disk controller 660 interfaces one or more optional disk drives to the system bus 652. These disk drives may be external or internal floppy disk drives such as 662, external or internal CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW or DVD drives such as 664, or external or internal hard drives 666. As indicated previously, these various disk drives and disk controllers are optional devices.

Each of the element managers, real-time data buffer, conveyors, file input processor, database index shared access memory loader, reference data buffer and data managers may include a software application stored in one or more of the disk drives connected to the disk controller 660, the ROM 656 and/or the RAM 658. Preferably, the processor 654 may access each component as required.

A display interface 668 may permit information from the bus 652 to be displayed on a display 670 in audio, graphic, or alphanumeric format. Communication with external devices may optionally occur using various communication ports 673.

In addition to the standard computer-type components, the hardware may also include data input devices, such as a keyboard 672, or other input device 674, such as a microphone, remote control, pointer, mouse and/or joystick.

Additionally, the methods and systems described herein may be implemented on many different types of processing devices by program code comprising program instructions that are executable by the device processing subsystem. The software program instructions may include source code, object code, machine code, or any other stored data that is operable to cause a processing system to perform the methods and operations described herein and may be provided in any suitable language such as C, C++, JAVA, for example, or any other suitable programming language. Other implementations may also be used, however, such as firmware or even appropriately designed hardware configured to carry out the methods and systems described herein.

The systems' and methods' data (e.g., associations, mappings, data input, data output, intermediate data results, final data results, etc.) may be stored and implemented in one or more different types of computer-implemented data stores, such as different types of storage devices and programming constructs (e.g., RAM, ROM, Flash memory, flat files, databases, programming data structures, programming variables, IF-THEN (or similar type) statement constructs, etc.). It is noted that data structures describe formats for use in organizing and storing data in databases, programs, memory, or other computer-readable media for use by a computer program.

The computer components, software modules, functions, data stores and data structures described herein may be connected directly or indirectly to each other in order to allow the flow of data needed for their operations. It is also noted that a module or processor includes but is not limited to a unit of code that performs a software operation, and can be implemented for example as a subroutine unit of code, or as a software function unit of code, or as an object (as in an object-oriented paradigm), or as an applet, or in a computer script language, or as another type of computer code. The software components and/or functionality may be located on a single computer or distributed across multiple computers depending upon the situation at hand.

It should be understood that as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Further, as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “each” does not require “each and every” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Finally, as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meanings of “and” and “or” include both the conjunctive and disjunctive and may be used interchangeably unless the context expressly dictates otherwise; the phrase “exclusive or” may be used to indicate situation where only the disjunctive meaning may apply. 

It is claimed:
 1. A computer-implemented system for providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation, comprising: a motion capture device configured to detect motion an examinee giving a presentation; an audio recording device configured to capture audio of the examinee giving the presentation; and a processing system configured to: extract a non-verbal feature of the presentation based on data collected by the motion capture device; extract an audio feature of the presentation based on data collected by the audio recording device; and generate a presentation score based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the motion capture device is a three dimensional depth measurement device or a marker based motion detection device.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the non-verbal feature includes a measurement of gestures made by the examinee during the presentation or a measurement of a posture of the examinee during the presentation.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the motion capture device includes a video camera; wherein the non-verbal feature includes a measurement of eye contact of the examinee during the presentation; wherein the non-verbal feature further includes a measurement of facial expression by the examinee during the presentation.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein extracting the audio feature includes: providing the data collected by the audio recording device to an automatic speech recognizer as part of extraction of the audio feature; wherein the automatic speech recognizer generates a transcript of speech of the presentation, wherein the one or more data processors are configured to generate the audio feature based on the transcript.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the presentation is given based on a presentation topic prompt, wherein the audio feature is based on content in the presentation relative to the presentation topic prompt based on the transcript.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein the automatic speech recognizer generates non-content, delivery based features of the presentation based on the data collected by the audio recording device; wherein the audio feature is a fluency or prosody measurement determined based on the non-content based features generated by the automatic speech recognizer.
 8. A computer-implemented method of providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation, comprising: detecting motion of an examinee giving a presentation using a motion capture device; capturing audio of the examinee giving the presentation using an audio recording device; extracting a non-verbal feature of the presentation based on data collected by the motion capture device; extracting an audio feature of the presentation based on data collected by the audio recording device; and generating a presentation score based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the motion capture device is a three dimensional depth measurement device or a marker based motion detection device.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the non-verbal feature includes a measurement of gestures made by the examinee during the presentation or a measurement of a posture of the examinee during the presentation.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the motion capture device includes a video camera; wherein the non-verbal feature includes a measurement of eye contact of the examinee during the presentation; wherein the non-verbal feature further includes a measurement of facial expression by the examinee during the presentation.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein extracting the audio feature includes: providing the data collected by the audio recording device to an automatic speech recognizer as part of extraction of the audio feature; wherein the automatic speech recognizer generates a transcript of speech of the presentation, wherein the one or more data processors are configured to generate the audio feature based on the transcript.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the presentation is given based on a presentation topic prompt, wherein the audio feature is based on content in the presentation relative to the presentation topic prompt based on the transcript.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the automatic speech recognizer generates non-content, delivery based features of the presentation based on the data collected by the audio recording device; wherein the audio feature is a fluency or prosody measurement determined based on the non-content based features generated by the automatic speech recognizer.
 15. A computer-readable medium encoded with instructions for commanding one or more data processors to execute steps for providing a multi-modal evaluation of a presentation, comprising: detecting audio of the examinee giving the presentation using an audio recording device; extracting a non-verbal feature of the presentation based on data collected by the motion capture device; extracting an audio feature of the presentation based on data collected by the audio recording device; and generating a presentation score based on the non-verbal feature and the audio feature.
 16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the motion capture device is a three dimensional depth measurement device or a marker based motion detection device.
 17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the non-verbal feature includes a measurement of gestures made by the examinee during the presentation or a measurement of a posture of the examinee during the presentation.
 18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the motion capture device includes a video camera; wherein the non-verbal feature includes a measurement of eye contact of the examinee during the presentation; wherein the non-verbal feature further includes a measurement of facial expression by the examinee during the presentation.
 19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein extracting the audio feature includes: providing the data collected by the audio recording device to an automatic speech recognizer as part of extraction of the audio feature; wherein the automatic speech recognizer generates a transcript of speech of the presentation, wherein the one or more data processors are configured to generate the audio feature based on the transcript.
 20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the presentation is given based on a presentation topic prompt, wherein the audio feature is based on content in the presentation relative to the presentation topic prompt based on the transcript.
 21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the automatic speech recognizer generates non-content, delivery based features of the presentation based on the data collected by the audio recording device; wherein the audio feature is a fluency or prosody measurement determined based on the non-content based features generated by the automatic speech recognizer. 